Peter Foster is the Telegraph's US Editor based in Washington DC. He moved to America in January 2012 after three years based in Beijing, where he covered the rise of China. Before that, he was based in New Delhi as South Asia correspondent. He has reported for The Telegraph for more than a decade, covering two Olympic Games, 9/11 in New York, the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, the post-conflict phases in Afghanistan and Iraq and the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.

Google row: the word leaks out in China

The logo of Google China outside its company headquarters in Beijing Photo: Reuters

As the talks continue between the US and Chinese governments over Google’s allegations of cyber attacks from China, there is still little hard information and therefore much empty frothing in the media the possible impacts of Google’s ultimatum.

Today’s China Daily does, however, contain one interesting fact among all the speculation. Namely, that the numbers of Chinese internet users searching on Google has soared since the row broke a week ago.

This might not be surprising, given the number of column inches being devoted to the story, but interestingly the biggest rise in searches is coming from the tier-3 and tier-4 cities that are not typically part of Google’s white-collar demographic in places like Beijing and Shanghai.

Edward Yu, president of Analysys International, the Chinese internet research firm, says that initial data shows a significant jump in Google searches.

The search inquiries for Google have seen a great rise during the past few days in China and a large number of them came from third and fourth-tier cities, where previously few people know about the company.

This is significant because it shows that the ‘word’ about Google – and therefore internet censorship – is getting out in China as a result of Google’s stand.

This will no doubt worry China’s leadership. Part of the genius of the Great Firewall is that the vast majority of Chinese internet users don’t know it is there, or at least rarely find themselves banging up against it.

As a recent McKinsey survey has shown, most Chinese netizens spend their time pursuing (politically) harmless activities in chat rooms, downloading music and video and playing mass-user games like Happy Farm which I’ve posted on before.

However one of the effects of Google’s threat to pull-out of China is that it unavoidably highlights the Government’s censorship of the web to the people.

That censorship is sold as a benign anti-pornography drive, but Google’s move will surely cause many Chinese to question why, if porn is all its about, an international market-leader like Google couldn’t stomach it.

Analysys say they have yet to break down the new Google searches (I’m trying to get that data from them now) but I think it’s possible to detect from the shift in tone in editorials in China’s official press that the rise in interest in Google has worried the government.

Take the Global Times, an English Language Daily published by the People’s Daily as an example.

When the story first broke a week ago, the paper, usually pretty nationalistic, took a surprisingly moderate line which was in tune with the views of many metropolitan Chinese expressed on bulletin boards and chat-rooms after hearing the news.

"Google is taking extreme measures but it is reminding us that we should pay attention to the issue of the free flow of information," the paper said.

Adding, in what sounded perilously close to an admonishment of reactionary forces in China’s government, that China's national influence and competitiveness depended on access to information. "We have to advance with the times," the paper said.

But by this Monday the paper was back to running a thumping editorial penned in the bunny-beating style favoured by China’s institutional propagandists – a sure sign, you might think, that someone was worried that the ‘pro-Google forces’ were gathering ground.

The leader berated the Obama administration for turning the Google row into a political football, warning that “Conciliatory negotiation may help in solving any issue. The West's arrogance will not work.”

“The world's top search engine needs to reflect on why it is lagging behind a local rival in China and why it is not getting as much support from Chinese Web users as it had expected,” it added.

“Doubtless, it is the ‘digital diplomacy’ involved that has further pulled down Google's popularity among Chinese.”

As is often the case with propaganda, the reverse (based on the Analysys numbers) appears to be true.